The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1887-06-16

1t may be that. with perfect propriety,
Col. Piatt might have added the name
of Farragut, the Tennesseean, to his
list of men who saved the Union.
Wlndell Phillips described Abraham
Lincoln as "the son Of poor people
the white trash of the South spawned
OF Illinois" Who knows but in the
South to-day, in some humble hut,
the greatest man Of the future sits
ragged little boy? Nothing could
have been more unpromising than Lin
coins beginning. <.
Donn Piatt describes Lincoln as one
Of the homeliest and ugliest Of man
kind. His face was ordinarily dull,
but, when reused, sparRled with run
and character. He hated abolition
lists, especially Seward, and had no
sympathy with the negro slaves, and
yet policy compelled him to make
Seward his prime minister and sign
an emancipation proclamation. He
had all of the "poor whites" hatred
Of the negro. He was coarse, tough,
uncultivated, but full of wit and sense.
No vicissitudes of war ever spoiled bis
meals or abbreviated his sleep. He
was at first blind to the coming storm.
He read Artemus Wards jokes at
Cabinet meetings, called for a comic
song when men lay dead or dying
around him on the battlefield, and
told the nastiest stories Of his time; but
he guided the ship of State serenely
and delivered at least one short speech
that cannot be excelied in eloquence.
HIS nature was not charitable or
forgiving one, and had ga cunning
that was genius" His occasional
acts of clemency, as Gen. Daniel Tyler
showed, were dictated by crafty mo-
tives. Such was, by some freak, "the
giant born to the poor whites of Ken
lucky" Although Col. Piatt leaves
out not a wart or wrinkle or distortion
in painting Lincoln, he accords him
the highest place in the bloody drama
of r86o-o5. And yet, but for Wilkes
Booths bullet, as Guiteau's in the case
of Garfield, Abraham Lincoln might
have been dwarfed in meretricieus his
tory alongside Grant and Sherman.
Stanton was originally of joyous
disposition, the possessor of a hearty
laugh and given to light literature.
His imagination was his strong at
tribute. He stsrtlingly changed when
at the head Of the War Department.
He grew gloomy, saturnine, brutal.
Col. Piatt dates this metamorphosis
from the death Of his first wife. OF
all Democrats, in 1860, he was the
most extreme, and Lincoln filed the
measure OF his contempt. His de-
scriptions of the rail-splitting lawyer
of Illinois would have done credit to
the keeper of chimpanzee. He put
upon Lincoln the grossest professional
anront, and yet Lincoln, for policy's
sake, overlooked it. He could not be
insulted. Upon i'll health Col.
Piatt saddles nearly all of Stanton's S
lapses from the true point of honor
and then covers his body with the ex.
cusing flag of his country, which, next
to Lincoln, he is presum, to have
| maintained supremely, with master
mind and idomitable will. Of the
case of Mrs. Surratt Col. Piatt IS dis.
creetly silent.
Chase was the ideal New Englander
the man of passion without sentiment.
He was highly cultivated Intellectually
He long debated whether the creates
criminals were in the churches or ths
penitentiaries. And yet he believed
in revelation, seeing, however, only
Christ crucifed, and not the horribl.
crowd that did the deed. 1t was h.
who added the closing invocation Il
the Supreme Being that is found il
the Emancipation Proclamation. Tn
atheist Lincoln never thought Of it
He was the godfather Of the Republi
can party.
William H. Seward had no faith il
the Constitution he swore to support
He regarded it as weak superstition
Without pity for the poor slave ant
great liking for the master, he was al
intense abolitionist from policy. II
was the cynical tool of Thurlow Weed
upon whom Col. Piatt pours the seve
vials of his wrath. Though partisa
of Weed he knew how to rise upo
seeming servility. His connectio
with Weed was sublime continuation
of the coalition between Blifil an
! Black George. In some sense he va
5 moral monster. He believed j
!: clever badness and the ability tia
came of worldly wickedness, but he va
neither lecher, a drunkard, gam
bier or thief His wickedness va
affected to keep Weed in countenanc'
He ridiculed Emancipation as ga pu
E of wind over an accomplished fact.
He knew there would be a long wa
E but dissembled to disarm foreign IL
e tervention. He rejoiced when Il
t South committed its cardinal blund'
D of not seizing the Capital and preven
+ ing Lincoln's Inauguration, since Il
only defence was "Gen. Scott and {.
n Marine Band"
,FI Zen Caoroe II Thovusx TIE vi